PM Khan faces no-confidence vote

The session will start at 10:30am local time, and the vote is the fourth point on the agenda, brought by the opposition leader

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s parliament will convene on Saturday to vote on removing Imran Khan as prime minister, an official notice said on Friday, potentially cutting short his term as leader.

The country’s top court ruled late on Thursday that Khan must face the no-confidence vote, which he is widely expected to lose, meaning he would be ousted from office.

The lower house of parliament has been convened for a session on Saturday at 10:30am local time, the speaker’s office said in an order paper. The vote, brought by the opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif, is the fourth point on the agenda.

Khan said after Thursday’s ruling that “My message to our nation is I have always and will continue to fight for (Pakistan) till the last ball”.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court said Khan had acted unconstitutionally in blocking the no-confidence vote last Sunday. Khan, who opposed the US-led intervention in Afghanistan and has developed relations with Russia since he became prime minister, has accused the US of supporting a plot to oust him. Washington has dismissed the accusation.

Ending uncertainty?

The rupee currency hit all-time lows on Thursday and foreign exchange reserves tumbled.

Pakistan’s central bank hiked its benchmark interest rate by 250 basis points on Thursday, the largest such move since 1996.

On Friday, markets opened higher on investor hopes the crisis might be easing. The Pakistan Stock Exchange was up 680 points, or 1.5%, and the rupee had rebounded from historic lows.

“The court decision will end political uncertainty and constitutional crisis to a large extent. This will help restore come confidence in the markets,” Muhammad Sohail of Karachi-based Topline Securities told Reuters.

“However economic challenges remain and it will be interesting to see how new set-up takes bold steps to put things in order,” he added.

Pakistan’s sovereign dollar bonds stumbled again on Friday, however. The 2029 issue dropped more than 1 cent to 88.6 cents on the dollar while shorter-dated issues traded around the mid-70s cents, Tradeweb data showed. The country’s bonds had traded close to par of 100 cents at the start of the year.

The opposition has said it wants early elections but only after delivering Khan a political defeat and passing legislation that it says is needed to ensure the next polls are free and fair.

The election commission has said the earliest it can hold elections is in October, which means any new government will have to deal with pressing economic issues before that.

Meeting with ISI chief

As PM explored his options ahead of the no-confidence vote against him, the PM met with Lieutenant General Nadeem Anjum, the chief of country’s intelligence agency Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI), on Friday.

Imran Khan also held a meeting of PTI’s political committee on the same day. PTI committee has decided to hold public gathering across all districts of the country and raise awareness about the “foreign conspiracy” to topple Imran Khan government.

Foreign conspiracy probe

The government has set up a commission led by a retired army officer to investigate the alleged “foreign conspiracy” behind the no-confidence motion, minister for information Fawad Chaudhry said.

The decision to constitute the commission was taken in the cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Khan

He said the commission has been formed to probe into the issue of the “threatening letter” and it will be headed by Lieutenant General (retd) Tariq Khan.

“The commission will investigate where the conspiracy was hatched and who were the local handlers of the conspiracy to topple the government,” he said.

“We have evidence of eight dissident provincial lawmakers being in contact with foreign dignitaries. The commission will look at a connection between local handlers and regime change,” Chaudhry further added.